From left to right, Susan Dymond (Interpretation Planner), Ananda Rutherford (Copyright & Archive Consultant), Rinku Mitra (Activity Planner), Neena Sohal (Activity Planner), and Amanda Cusimano (Evaluation Planner).
iniva (The Institute of International Visual Arts) is delighted to introduce our project team to support the initial phase of its groundbreaking project, Living Legacies: Collaboration, Community and Radicality supported by a recently awarded development grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
We’re excited to share some fantastic news! In 2024, iniva was awarded a development grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to launch the initial phase of our innovative project, Living Legacies: Collaboration, Community and Radicality. This initiative is all about transforming access to our archives and celebrating the vital contributions of diasporic artists who have shaped Black art and Internationalism.
Running from June 2024 to October 2025, this development phase will set the groundwork for widening our community engagement, ensuring that iniva’s archive reaches new audiences while also creating opportunities for underrepresented individuals in the archive sector.
Meet the Team
To make this vision a reality, we’ve brought together an incredible team of expert consultants who will be working alongside our Living Legacies Project Manager, Tavian Hunter and Artistic Director, Sepake Angiama:
- Neena Sohal & Rinku Mitra (Activity Planners) – Exploring how we can connect with new audiences and create important community-led activities.
- Susan Dymond (Interpretation Planner) – Helping us shape engaging narratives that bring the archive to life through storytelling.
- Ananda Rutherford (Copyright & Archive Consultant) – Ensuring that we follow best practices in making the archive more accessible while respecting intellectual property and the voice of the artist.
- Amanda Cusimano (Evaluation Planner) – Measuring the impact of our work and ensuring we build a sustainable and long-lasting legacy.
What’s Next?
Over the coming months, our team will be researching and planning an exciting programme of events, workshops, and exhibitions designed to make iniva’s archive more accessible and relevant to intergenerational audiences across Westminster, Lambeth, and Southwark. Through this process, we’ll be critically testing new approaches to audience engagement, storytelling, and digital accessibility—helping us shape the next phase of Living Legacies.
As iniva’s Artistic Director, Sepake Angiama, puts it:
“This grant is a crucial step for iniva’s work. It’s an indication of iniva’s archive as nationally significant. It is fundamental to catalogue our exhibition histories to retain memory of the work of artists and organisers. Their work continues to inspire us today and we need to keep it living for future generations. Stuart Hall talks of the living archive and our archive is just that – it demonstrates a genealogy of Black and international art and artists that are part of our cultural heritage for everyone to enjoy.”
The National Lottery Heritage Fund grant applications over £250,000 are assessed in two rounds. Living Legacies: Collaboration, Community, and Radicality has initially been granted round one development funding of £149,500 by The National Lottery Heritage Fund in 2024, allowing it to progress with its plans.
We can’t wait to see the impact of this work and look forward to sharing updates along the way.